


Escape the Night: The Ungodly Machine

by Dede42



Series: Escape the Night Season 1 [2]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: 1920s, Accusations, Artifacts, Blame Game, Books, Chess, Clues, Elements, Evil, Haunted House, Murder Mystery, Novelization, Poison Gas, Psychological Trauma, Puzzles, Spirit Board, Trauma, Ungodly Machine, time limit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-02-28 13:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18757789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dede42/pseuds/Dede42
Summary: Trapped, Joey, Dawn and their friends work through a mad scientist's clues and end up facing his most evil creation, the "Ungodly Machine." Who will pay the price to stop it?





	1. PROLOGUE: THE MAD SCIENTIST

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the next installment of Season 1 of Escape the Night!  
> I know that I said I would post on Thursday, and I will post again tomorrow, but I just really felt like starting the next story today.

**PROLOGUE: THE MAD SCIENTIST**

 

*****

 

In the basement of a certain house locked in the 1920s, a balding man was working feverishly on a strange and very steampunk machine that had two tall glass tubes attached to the sides with a glass square tank in front of it, and all around it was machinery. He was wearing the typical white steampunk lab coat and he was doing his best to ignore the pleas of the young man and the young woman that were chained off to the side.

 

“Please don’t do this!” the young man pleaded, wearing only white pants.

 

“Shut up!” the scientist snapped, staring at the readings on the machine before him.

 

“We didn’t do anything!” the young woman cried, wearing only a sleeveless white dress.

 

“Shut up!” the scientist snapped again, grabbing a paper with writing on it. “Shut up, I need to think!”

 

Just then, a door opened and the hooded figure with the creepy mask from Joey’s nightmare, entered, approaching the scientist. _`“It’s time.”`_

 

The scientist straightened and turned to the figure before glancing at the tank, which was filled with a black liquid that surrounded a blackened skeleton. Knowing that his employer was right, he went to a table covered with papers and instruments, and picked up a syringe.

 

“No! No!” the young man cried, trying to pull away as the scientist approached him and injected into him a sedative that made him to limp.

 

“No! Please don’t!” the young woman pleaded as the scientist turned to her, injecting her with the same sedative so that she also went limp.

 

Putting the syringe down, the scientist removed the chains and placed first the young man into one of the tubes, and then the young woman into the other tube. He went back to the console that ran the whole machine and glanced at his employer, unable to see past the creepy bird-like mask to see what his employer was thinking.

 

The scientist focused on the console and pulled a lever. Soon lights began flashing, electricity lancing through the equipment, and the two tubes were soon filled with a toxic black gas that drained the life out of the two victims, killing them slowly and painfully, not that they were really aware of it because of the sedative they’d been given.

 

The scientist watched the readings, avoiding making eye contact with his victims, and he also watched as more black liquid poured into the glass case, filling it so that the skeleton was completely covered. Moments later, a female humanoid monster sat upright with a loud scream, a spiked collar and a chain being the only things keeping her from launching out of the case to attack them.

 

She had pale bluish horns growing out of the top of her head, she was bald and her face was white save for the read around her eerie green/gold eyes, her red lips, her mouth was filled with white fangs, and dark bluish-grey on the back of her head and down her neck. She was covered with only dark blue and green scales and she was clearly evil with how she was tugging at the chain, trying to break free.

 

The mysterious figure stared at the creature for a long moment before speaking. _`“We’ll need more.”`_

 

“The machine needs to be recharged,” the scientist informed his employer, and while he was pleased that his machine had worked, he was feeling guilty, too. “It requires more electricity than a small city.”

 

The mysterious figure pulled a small pyramid object, that had carved tentacles and glowing red eyes, and set it on the nearby table. _`“Try using this.”`_

 

The scientist stared at the artifact, having never seen anything like it before, but he could tell that it was powerful. “Once I place the object in the machine,” he warned, “it may be impossible to retrieve.”

 

 _`“It’s better that way,”`_ the mysterious figure stated, still staring at the new creature, which was hissing at them and still tugging on the chain.  _‘Yes, it’s best that the artifact remains inside the machine for the time being. Eventually it will be needed again…but only when the time is_ right _.’_

 

When his employer left, the scientist carefully picked up the artifact and carried it to the machine, going to the part between the tubes. He opened a hatch and gingerly placed the artifact inside, sealing it shut.  _‘There, and now to find more victims to build up my employer’s army.’_

 

When the mysterious figure had first approached the scientist, he’d been struggling to convince anyone that he could give new life to the dead, and that he could improve that life, too. Yes, it did mean having to kill others, but he had been certain that he could do it, and when the mysterious figure offered him the money and a place to build his machine so that he could prove his theory right, he’d jumped at the chance.

 

The mysterious figure had provided him with a part of the massive basement of the house to be his lab, and he had immediately had gone to work on building his machine. His _ungodly_ machine, and when he was sure that he had it working perfectly, he had gone about getting the skeleton ready with a few genetic modifications that his employer had approved.

 

Once the skeleton was ready, he had gone out to a local college and convinced a young man and his girlfriend that he needed some assistants for an experiment. By a twist of fate, they had been science majors at the college, and it hadn’t taken them very long to figure out what the scientist was intending to do.

 

They had had tried to escape, but others that worked for his employer had prevented them from leaving the grounds, and now his machine had been successful in transforming their life forces into energy that’d been used to create the first of many creatures for his employer.

 

 _‘My theory was right,’_ the scientist thought, going to work on preparing a second skeleton while the mysterious figure would arrange to provide fresh victims.  _‘I can both create and give life to that that was once dead.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, I don't like the looks of that machine at all. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	2. CHAPTER ONE: TALKING WITH SPIRITS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the next installment of the second episode of Escape the Night. So, I'm a bit groggy since I was up late due to work at the movie theater, and if there are any goofs in the story, that's most likely why. Anyway, time to see if our favorite YouTubers can survive the long night that's ahead of them now that the car has been blown to kingdom come. Onward!

**CHAPTER ONE: TALKING WITH SPIRITS**

 

*****

 

The group fled back into the house through the front door, leaving behind the still-burning remains of the car, and they had all seen a body lying nearby, which they were certain was the driver, but they hadn’t bothered to stop to check. They were all freaking out, some people were swearing, and none of them knew how to deal with this situation.

 

“Okay, what just happened?” Tim wondered as they all went into the library to work through the situation if it was even possible.

 

“I don't understand what just happened," Oli said, and his voice was shaking.

 

GloZell had a hand to her forehead and a panicked expression on her face. "I can't believe it!"

 

"Who was that guy?" Lele questioned, sitting down next to Justine. "Was that the driver?"

 

"Yes! He was just lying on the ground!" a still-hysterical Sierra shrieked.

 

This prompted a flurry of comments from the group about whether they should go back for him, but the debate is cut off by a clearly livid Lele. "I'm not going near that car _at all!_ ” she seethed, crossing her arms in defiance.

 

“With the car destroyed, we’re stuck here,” Dawn declared, shaken and only Joey’s arm around her shoulders was keeping her from going into shock… but only just barely. “We have _no way_ of getting back to 2016."  _‘Oh, how I wish the TARDIS was real.’_

 

“Here's the thing," Matt said, trying to keep his voice steady. “I'm trying to get back to 2016. We've got to find the four artifacts, or…we can't go home. That's really what it comes down to.”

 

“Well, somebody's gon' die,” GloZell pointed out, “maybe we can just decide who gon' die."

 

"No!" Joey stared at her as if she just suggested sacrificing the butler to Satan. "Omigod!”

 

“We can’t do that!” Dawn protested. “That’s just _wrong!_ ” And Benny was agreeing with her while Bart made some comment about her ‘living a sheltered life’, and she glared at the older man. “For the _umpteen_ time, I _haven’t_ lived a sheltered life! My parents were selective and I was still aware of what was going on in the world!”

 

Matt didn’t want to kill anyone either, or vote for someone to die, but he knew that they had to. “People are going to die, regardless," he stated and they all started quieting down since he was right. "It said that we have to vote people in to do the challenges.”

 

“I wanna get the hell out of here," Justine moaned. "I don't know about you guys, but I haven't checked my email in, like, forty-eight hours.”

 

“What do we know?” GloZell wondered, getting them to focus on the current problem andnot of what they were missing out in the modern world.

 

Joey took a breath, thinking of the letter. “Okay, well, we know from Shane's letter that that symbol that was on the square-" and they knew that he was referring, of course, to that weird Society Against Evil symbol that had been on both the letter and the telegram "-is what's gonna lead us to our next clue.”

 

 _‘A symbol made out of two ‘H’s’,’_ Dawn thought, recalling the symbol.

 

“So we've got to look for more of those symbols throughout the house,” said Matt, doing his best to remain calm, which in turn was helping the rest of them to remain calm, too.

 

“Dammit!” Tim suddenly shouted, making them all jump while he threw his hands up against his temples. “My  _wallet_ was in the car!" He turned away, muttering curses under his breath, and Sierra tried her best to suppress a giggle.

 

 _‘Lord give us strength,’_ Dawn thought while shooting Tim an exasperated look. “Really?”

 

“Okay, you know what?" Lele said with an exasperated expression. "I think that we should just, like, start looking _now_."

 

Eva squirmed in her seat, the panic on her face giving way to a resigned determination. "So should we just split up?"

 

"I think we _should_ split up," Joey agreed.

 

"Omigod," Sierra moaned, wondering if no one there had _ever_ seen a horror movie. "Splitting up is _never_ a good idea, okay?"

 

"How much time do we have?" Lele asked, ignoring her.

 

"We have until the sun comes up," Andrea said grimly.

 

"What?" GloZell asked, staring at her.

 

"We have the one night," Matt confirmed, as if they didn't hear it the first time, "or we're stuck in 1920."

 

"Why are we standing here?” Sierra asked. “Let's do it."

 

"We need a clue,” GloZell remarked, and seconds later, Sarah entered the library, and she was carrying a giant wooden box.  _‘Me and my big mouth!’_

 

The group watched the maid warily, a few of them backing away from the table as she placed the box on it. “This arrived in the post earlier today,” she informed them with a calm that left them all uneasy, more so when she lifted the lid, and they all screamed, when she revealed that the contents was a human hand inside a glass box surrounded by four pole lights.

 

Seeing the hand, Justine retreated from the table and positioned herself behind Tim, who was near one of the windows that had a board in front of it, not that anyone was paying attention to it.

 

“What the _hell_ is that?” Oli asked uneasily, unable to take his eyes off this newest horror. It was long and skinny, pale white, black nail polish, with the strangest tattoos up and down the arm. Also, there was a glowing yellow star of some sort on its wrist.

 

“Did this come from the bayou?” Matt wondered.

 

 _‘First a head and now a hand,’_ Benny thought uneasily.

 

GloZell noticed that there was a card connected to the glass case, and everyone was wondering what it said as she removed it and began to read it. “‘Her essence can speak to you through the spirit board…’ Uh-oh!” she yelped and dropped the card.

 

“I don’t mess with spirit boards,” Sierra stated, and it was the general agreement among them.

 

Justine shifted and she noticed the strange-looking Ouija-board type object next to her. "Spirit board!”

 

Eva picked up the card and took over on reading the contents, which had seemed to have become her role in the group. “‘Her essence can speak to you through the spirit board in the library, giving you clues; however, it requires great strength to speak from across the grave and can only occur once an hour’. So she's kind of like a lifeline," she explained.

 

“A lifeline we can used, but only once an hour,” Bart remarked. “Makes sense, even though using a spirit board is a _bad_ idea.”

 

Even Dawn had to agree, and she’d never used one, having heard too many horror stories. Of course the funniest story she’d ever heard was when her dad, as a boy, had a spirit board and his late little brother tried to make it say that he was going to die. “I fully agree with you, Bart, but given our current situation, it’s best we use anything that can help us find the artifacts.”

 

“Ok, may I make a suggestion?” Arthur suggested, startling the group since they’d forgotten that he was there. “Someone should act as the voice and read the invocation.”

 

Justine surprised everyone, including herself, when she picked up a card that was on the spirit board and began reading it. “We call you now to bless our meetings," she recited in a trembling voice. "Heavens promise our spirits thrive, so now for the living let the…dead come alive?” And as the others nervously moved closer to see if the spirit board would respond, she finished reading the invocation. “Greetings, spirits. Speak to us.”

 

At first, nothing happen and then there were startled gasps when one of the letters on the board lit up.

 

“Omigod!" Justine screamed, practically jumping away from the spirit board. "It just lit up, I'm not even joking, this just…" She was a stuttering mess. "This just lit up.”

 

“Okay, so ask it something else,” Eva suggested.

 

Oli, however, noticed that a pattern was forming on the board as more letters began lighting up. “Oh, wait, hold on, there's B…”

 

The group moved in closer to read the letters as they lit up one at a time. “O…”

 

"O…"

 

"K…"

 

"Book!" several people shouted at once, but the board is not done yet.

 

"S."

 

And then, finally, it went dark.

 

"Books." Joey turned and headed straight for the bookshelves. "We need to look at the books.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never used a spirit board or anything like that since I've heard too many horror stories about those things, too. I will see you all on Monday as I have a morning shift at the movie theater on Tuesday. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	3. CHAPTER TWO: LAST AIRBENDER ANYONE? PART ONE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the next installment of Escape the Night. Now, I felt like posting since yesterday and today were a bit hectic as I was with my client, who also has autism, and I also saw Avengers: Endgame last night, too.
> 
> Anyway, time to see if our favorite YouTubers can find the right books. Onward!

**CHAPTER TWO:** _ **LAST AIRBENDER** _ **ANYONE? PART ONE**

 

*****

 

The group split up to search the library and the other nearby rooms for books, although they weren’t sure what kind of books, but they figured that the books they needed would have a symbol on them, and as they searched, Matt opened a cabinet and found a locked chest inside.

 

“So I'm not sure if I was supposed to open this cabinet," he confessed, "but there is a symbol here…on the chest…" He pointed at the locked chest inside the cabinet and on it was the symbol for the Society Against Evil. "And there's a lock with a symbol on it."

 

Lele frowned. "So we need a key."

 

"No, we need a code!" Sierra exclaimed.

 

Oli, who was holding a book that had a star symbol like the one on the hand, held it up. “This book has a symbol on it.”

 

“All right, so the code is probably in the book,” Tim suggested.

 

Oli opened the book to start flipping through the pages, but that was when he saw that there was a number under the symbol. “Wait, hold on! This has a number on it!” And sure enough, there was a golden 6 glittering on the spine.

 

Lele saw that there was a book next to a potted plant and she quickly grabbed it. “Wait, I found one!” she exclaimed and showed it to them. “This is 5.”

 

Oli looked between the two books and saw that there was something else on the books. “Look, the books have arrows on them.”

 

Joey stared at the books and realized that he’d seen a book earlier in the living room. “Wait I have one, I know where there’s one, too,” he said and he hurried back into the parlor while Sierra found another book at the same time as Dawn, bringing the total of found books to four.

 

Joey retrieved the book he’d found earlier, and he brought it back as the group scattered to find the remaining books. He glanced over at the hand, noting that it had the same star symbol on it, and that there were dials on the side with numbers above them. “Wait, maybe it has something to do with this?” he asked, pointing to the dials and counted how many that there were. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. We have five books, we need three more.”

 

Two more books were found, but no one was sure of where to find the last book, and Andrea wandered out into the hallway, noticing a giant grandfather clock. It was brown, shiny, relatively new-looking…and it had cabinets that one could probably hid something inside if they wanted to. Curious, she opened one of the cabinet doors, and she found a green-covered book that had the symbol on it.

 

Andrea grabbed the book and hurried back into the library, holding it up. “Found it!” she announced triumphantly. “It was in the clock!”

 

“Good job, Andrea,” Dawn said as the last book was added to the other seven books that Eva was organizing in the correct order. “Now to get the code.”

 

Oli set the books in the correct order and noted that each arrow was pointing a different direction. “Look, they all have different arrows,” he remarked. “And the box has dials…I think these books are telling us where these dials have to be.”

 

“You’re right,” Eva agreed, kneeling down in front of the table and she reached for the first dial.

 

Oli read off each arrow direction and Eva turned the dials for each arrow. When she turned the last dial, the lights on the hand box lit up, earning cheers from the group, and the cheers quickly turned to gasps of fear when the lights in the room began flickering with a creepy demonic voice whispering to them.

 

 _`“Three…four…five…seven…”`_ it whispered.

 

The group looked around uneasily with Dawn holding onto Joey’s arm as the demonic voice whispered the numbers a second time.

 

 _`“Three…four…five…seven…”`_ the demon voice whispered and the lights on the box went out, and the lights in the room returned to normal.

 

“Five, four, seven!” Justine exclaimed from where she was kneeling next to Eva.

 

“It said _three_ , four, five, seven,” GloZell corrected her.

 

Sierra got up and went to retrieve the chest and Joey waved her over to the table, where she set it down. She then put the four numbers into the combination. “Three…” she muttered “…five…four…seven.” And with a click, the lock came off.

 

Joey opened the box and inside were black/white chess pieces and a note. “Chess pieces!”

 

“ _Chess pieces_?” GloZell repeated skeptically.

 

“I guess we’re going to play chess,” Dawn suggested.

 

Matt looked around the room and pointed to a nearby table that had a chess board on it. “Chess board, over there.”

 

Joey took the note out of the box and, after Tim instructed everyone to be quiet when they started talking, he began reading it. “‘Thirty men and only two women, but they hold the most power. Dressed in black and white, they could fight for hours’.” He raised his eyebrows at this and shrugged as Matt grabbed the chest and carried it over to the chess board.

 

Both Justine and Sierra immediately sat down on either side as the chess pieces were set up, and Joey resumed reading the note. “‘The ladies need to find a perfect pair…a handsome knight on their right with a flair’,” he read as they moved the chess pieces in response.

 

Tim, wanting to be helpful since Matt was coaching the girls on which pieces were which, took the note and read the next part. “‘Yet one of these ladies is in deep sorrow; her white-bearded husband will not have his home tomorrow. Because a vicious bishop-’”

 

“Bishop!” Joey interrupted, excitedly pointing to one of the pieces on the chess board. “Bishop is gonna get the king!”

 

Tim rolled his eyes as the pieces were moved and he resumed reading. “‘-took his house, a beautiful medieval castle’.”

 

“So would these be considered the castles?" Matt asked, pointing to the white rook in the corner of the board.

 

Tim nodded. "Yeah."

 

"And then the bishop just goes and takes his spot." Matt reached over, grabbed Sierra's bishop, and moved it to the spot currently occupied by Justine's rook. "So push that off."

 

Seconds after Justine whisked the rook off the board, a compartment flew open beneath the table, and several people jumped while Joey cheered. “We did it!”

 

“Whoever is behind this certainly enjoys their jump scares a _bit_ too much,” Dawn muttered.

 

Oli peered into the compartment and took out a note, which he began reading. “‘Today's experiment was a success. The machine was able to consume the life force of two college students and produce an ungodly monster’.” He made a face at the description and resumed reading. “‘However, the machine's demand for power is endless. I'm using an ancient artifact with an…” he stopped reading for a few seconds to stare pointedly at the group “‘…with an origin I do not wish to know as a source, but it has come with a price. My mind can no longer distinguish between reality and nightmare. I've locked the key to the machine inside the green cabinet in the ballroom, but my scattered mind cannot recall where I left the combination on the first floor. All the thoughts I can hold are the four elements of triangles I learned as a boy: fire, water, air and earth’.”

 

 _‘Now we go from a horror movie to_ Last Airbender _,’_ Oli thought.  _‘That’s perfectly fine, but if the Fire Nation starts attacking, I’m outta here.’_

 

*****

 

Once again the group split up with Eva going down the hallway with Tim, Sierra, and Bart. “Fire, water, air, Earth,” she muttered as they entered the study to search for something related to one of the four elements.

 

*****

 

Matt went into the parlor with Justine, Lele, Benny, and GloZell to check there for any of the elements, and Lele pointed at a bronze circular object on one of the small tables. “Air? That air?”

 

Matt glanced at it and shook his head while suggesting they look for something in plain sight. He joined Justine over at the golden gramophone to look it over, joking that this reminded her of when she got her first ever iPod and was trying to get it to work.

 

*****

 

In the hallway, Joey, Oli, Andrea, and Dawn find a black box with a hole on one side and a vase filled with flowers next to it.

 

“There’s a symbol on this box,” said Oli, pointing to a white symbol under the hole

 

“What do we do?” Joey wondered, eying the hole.

 

 _‘Grab a match and burn this whole place down,’_ Andrea thought, but she didn’t voice it.

 

Dawn examined the box, noting the hole. “Maybe, we need to put something in the box.”

 

“What would fit in there?” Andrea wondered and they all shrugged. While Dawn and the boys searched for something to put in the box, she riffled through the drawers of the table and found a lightbulb. “A lightbulb?” She tried it, and when nothing happen, she sighed and kept searching.

 

*****

 

Meanwhile in the study, Eva’s group was still searching for one of the elements when Sierra noticed that the fan was on.

 

“Wind?” she guessed, pointing at it and getting the attention of Eva, Bart, and Tim. “The fan is on.”

 

Bart went to the fan and saw that there was a symbol on it. “Look,” he said, pointing to the symbol. “This must be for air.”

 

“Ok,” said Eva, joining him. “Is there a number?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm with Oli, if a member of the Fire Nation shows up, I'm outta there and finding someone who can control water. So, will they be able to find all of the symbols and the numbers? You'll just have to wait until Monday to find out.
> 
> Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	4. CHAPTER THREE: LAST AIRBENDER ANYONE? PART TWO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome to the next installment of Escape the Night! The search for the elements has begun, and it's time to see if they can find the numbers to get access to the first artifact.

**CHAPTER THREE:** _ **LAST AIRBENDER** _ **ANYONE? PART TWO**

 

*****

 

“Are we gonna die?” Justine wondered after giving up on the gramophone. “’Cause I don’t wanna die in the 1920s.”

 

“No one does, Justine,” said Benny, patting her shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll get out of here before that happens.”

 

Matt wanted to believe that, but it was hard when they still hadn’t found any of the artifacts, and he just happen to look behind the bronze object that Lele had been asking about earlier. There he saw the symbol. “Oh! I found a clue!” And he picked the heater, for that was what it was, up.

 

“You?” Lele asked, hurrying over and shook her head when she saw it was the heater she’d pointed at earlier. “No!”

 

“I found it,” Matt insisted, turning the heater so that they could see the symbol on the back. “It was right on the back. You were right from the beginning,” he added to Lele, who snorted.

 

“What  _is_ it?” Justine asked.

 

Matt smiled. “A heater. This is fire. We found fire, you guys!”

 

“One down and three to go,” said Benny. “Now we just need to find a number on that thing.”

 

*****

 

Oli was looking at the symbol on the box and when he realized what it was, he felt like kicking himself. “I think this is water.”

 

Dawn looked at the symbol and nodded, feeling silly for not recognizing it. “You’re right, that’s the symbol for water.”

 

Joey felt like kicking himself, too, for not seeing it, and raised his eyebrows when Oli took the flowers out of a nearby China vase and brought it over. Before he could ask, his friend began pouring water into the hole. “How much water are we gonna put in there?” he wondered.

 

“As much as it takes,” Dawn said, peering into the hole and frowned. “Seriously? The water is disappearing into it.”

 

“It's eating it!" Joey exclaimed. "It just sucked it all down!”

 

“Where did it go?” Andrea wondered.

 

Both Dawn and Joey shrugged while Oli kept pouring water into the hole. “Don’t know.”

 

*****

 

Upstairs in the study, Tim was peering at the fan, trying to find the number. “What’s the number?”

 

“It’s probably on the blades of the fan,” Sierra guessed.

 

“Here, put your finger in there,” Tim suggested and she immediately protested.

 

Bart rolled his eyes and turned the fan off, and Eva used a spare button from her coat to slow the blades down until they could see the number.

 

“Eight!” And they ran out of the room to let the others know before searching for the next element. “Eight, we found it, we got it, eight, guys!”

 

*****

 

Distracted by the shouting, Matt yelped when Lele yanked the heater out of his hands. “This is _my_ clue, actually!” she snapped.

 

Matt raised his hands and backed away. “Oh. You take the clue.” And he stepped aside to let her figure it out.  _‘When it comes time to voice, I’m voting for Lele, for she’s_ nuts _! And she’s a_ threat  _to the rest of us. I’m certain of it.’_

 

*****

 

In the hallway, Joey had taken over on pouring water into the hole while Eva and her group grabbed flashlights and went outside with Arthur to search for Earth.

 

“Where is this _going?_ ” Oli wondered since the water kept disappearing into the hole and they hadn’t gotten the number yet.

 

“Joey, stop pouring,” Dawn said, removing the vase that was on the box and groaned when she saw that there was a hole underneath it. “Guys, we’ve been pouring the water in the wrong hole.” She set the vase down and she helped Joey and Oli pick the box up. “Ok, we need to get the water out if we want that number.”

 

However, the moment they started tipping the box, the water started going everywhere, and they yelped as they started getting wet. Joey was even laughing for the first time since Shane’s death. “That was the worst idea _ever!_ ”

 

“Yes it was,” Dawn giggled and Oli was snickering as they put the box down and tried to dry themselves off. “Not my best idea at all.” And Andrea was laughing outright at their antics.

 

*****

 

In the parlor, GloZell was watching as Lele, Justine, Benny, and Matt examined the heart, which they decided to plug in to see if they could find the number by turning it on.

 

“We need to plug it in?" she asked, feeling completely out of the loop. "I don't think we need to turn it on…there's no bulb in it…”

 

"Well, it's a heater," Matt explained, "so it radiates heat."

 

 _‘Well, I knew_ that _,’_ GloZell thought sourly. _‘_ _I'm not a_ complete  _doofus_ _. No wonder Lele doesn’t like this guy.’_

 

*****

 

Determined to find the number, Oli grabbed one of the flowers out of the vase and inserted the stem into the hole, where he began moving it around, searching for whatever it was that had the number.

 

“What are you doing?” Joey asked and that was when Oli began lifting something out. “Oh what is that?”

 

Oli kept lifting the object until it popped out, making him jump as it bounced on the floor, for it was a white ping pong ball. “I’ve got it! Yes!”

 

Joey quickly picked up the ball and they all beamed when they saw the number 3 on it in golden ink. They had the number!

 

*****

 

Lele got on the floor and when she plugged the plug into the outlet, she and the others were surprised when the number 5 appeared on it. “This is five!” And they hurried into the hallway, where Joey was waving the ball.

 

“Three! Guys, we got three!”

 

“We have five!" Lele and GloZell hollered back, their voices combining to form a strange sort of chorus. "Five!”

 

*****

 

While all of this was going on inside the house, outside the house, Eva was searching for the final symbol with Tim, Bart, Sierra, and Arthur was helping them search the bushes alongside the front of the house.

 

“This is sketchy," Eva muttered as the group made their way past various windows. "This is a basement situation." She stopped at an open window, and her flashlight shined into its darkened depths. "This one's open…I don't wanna look in there.” And she quickly turned away from it to check the bushes.

 

Sierra, Bart, and Tim didn’t blame her since they all had seen enough horror movies to know that something nasty _always_ hid in the basement until someone was foolish enough to open the door or window to check, and that was usually when someone got themselves killed.

 

*****

 

Ironically it was Arthur who managed to find something. “What’s this?” he wondered, pointing the beam of his flashlight at what appeared to be a pair of handprints in the dirt.

 

“What’s that?” Sierra inquired, joining him, and both Tim and Eva bent down to examine the discovery.

 

“It’s a handprint,” said Eva.

 

Tim brushed off the dirt to reveal two handprints in a white surface. “It’s two handprints,” he corrected her and dug at the dirt. “I think it’s a box.” And he was right, for he managed to dig the box out of the dirt.

 

They opened the lid and found inside the golden number 2.

 

“Two,” said Sierra, jumping to her feet, and she ran back for the front door. “Dirt two! Guys! We found it!” And Tim, Eva, and Arthur hurried after her.

 

They had the final number and it was time to get the key!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! The numbers have been found! Anyway, I will see you all on Thursday for the next chapter. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	5. CHAPTER FOUR: VOTING BEGINS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night! Also, a birthday shout out to Joey Graceffa! Happy Birthday, Joey!
> 
> So, the group split up and they managed to find the four numbers for the combination, now can they find the key that will help them get the first artifact? It's time to find out. Onward!

**CHAPTER FOUR: VOTING BEGINS**

 

*****

 

Once they were all back inside, Eva was quick to enter the combination into the lock, and when it clicked, they all cheered as the cabinet open to reveal that there was a cog-shaped key sitting inside. She also noticed that there was a letter, which she took out of the cabinet while handing the cog-shaped key to Tim, and she began reading it.

 

“‘The ungodly machine is in the basement’,” she read and suppressed a groan. _‘The basement._ Why _did it have to be the basement?!’_ “‘The cog key will ignite its wicked engine, but understand…once the machine has been started, it can only be stopped by the loss of an innocent life’.” And she wasn’t surprised when the others all gasped and grimaced since they’d been dreading this ever since they first read Shane’s letter. “‘Two guests must be selected by the vote of the group…to be locked in the machine. Then those two must each choose a partner who will aid them in defeating the machine’.”

 

“I'm not going in the basement,” GloZell said firmly.

 

“Timothy is one of 'em," Lele insisted. "He just kills everybody, so he deserves to die."

 

"I don't kill my _friends!"_ Tim objected, glaring at her since he was getting sick and tired of her blaming everything on him.

 

Matt shook his head. "Yeah, I think we need to lay off Timothy, all right?"

 

"I may have a method for voting," Arthur announced and they all looked at him questioningly. "Please, have a seat.”

 

Exchanging uneasy looks, the group went to sit down in the couches and chairs, and they were all wondering how they were going to vote for two of their numbers to go up against this _machine_ , and who among them was going to end up dying in order to get the first artifact?

 

*****

 

Once they were all seated, Arthur stood behind a table that had a small stack of papers, a pen, and he held a grey hat in his hands. “Here is how the final voting will work," he explained. "Each one of you will write down the name of the person that you want to attempt the final task and put it in this hat. I will then draw two names who must face death. Please, discuss this among yourselves.”

 

At first no one moved or said anything since they were all in shock by this, and then Joey was the first to snap out of it. “Omigod." He stood up, grabbed Justine and Dawn's wrists, and gently tugged them to their feet. "Okay, come with me."

 

They headed off together, and Joey shot a stare at the rest of the group, as if to warn them against voting for him, for Dawn, or Justine, his longtime friend.

 

Eva and Sierra exchanged a look before they also stood up and hurried after the trio, and Benny also hurried after them, too.

 

Oli watched them leave and his own mind was spinning. _How_ was he suppose to decide which of his friends was going to go up against a death machine in the basement?!

 

The moment they were gone, Lele started going into a rant of how Tim should be put up for the challenge, about how he killed people, and both GloZell and Bart were backing her up with claims of how he was the worst one and that he was clearly with the Devil.

 

“ _How_ many times do I have to say that I kill people for _business_ and not for _pleasure_?” Tim demanded. “I would _never_ kill my friends.”

 

“You guys are very quick to throw stones from over there,” Matt remarked from where he was sitting next to Tim on the couch. _‘Too quick. Lele has_ got  _to go.’_

 

*****

 

While they were arguing in the room, out in the hallway, Joey was having a much calmer discussion with Dawn, Justine, Eva, Sierra, and Benny. Although none of them wanted to vote any of their friends to go up against the ungodly machine in the basement, they knew that they had to, and now they had to decide _who_ to vote for.

 

“I think we should form an alliance," Joey whispered.

 

“That’s a good idea,” Dawn agreed. “And the others are probably going to form an alliance, too, providing that they actually stop arguing.” She could hear the arguing even with the door shut.

 

"Me too." Eva agreed, glancing around the room for a second before turning her attention back to Joey. "But who do we kick out?"

 

“Someone who's useless,” Sierra suggested.

 

"Andrea,” Justine said quickly, surprising them.

 

Benny raised his eyebrows at that. “Andrea, are you sure?”

 

“ _I'm_ the one finding all the clues here," Eva pointed out. "I cannot die. We'll all die.”

 

“I'm not voting for you," Joey assured her.

 

“No one in this group is going to vote for each other,” said Dawn. “Although I do wish that we didn’t have to vote for _anyone._ ”

 

 _‘I know how you feel,’_ Benny thought. “I wish we didn’t have to vote either, but we have to.”

 

“Andrea,” Justine repeated. “She's cool and all, but…it's got to be her."

 

"Okay," Sierra muttered, staring at the floor. "I think we know what we have to do.”

 

“Yeah, we do.”

 

*****

 

While they were coming to a conclusion of who they were going to vote for, the others were still arguing…well, Matt and Lele were yelling at each other, and Tim, Bart, Oli, Andrea, and GloZell were watching them.

 

After several minutes of this, Oli finally had enough and spoke his mind, getting them to shut up. “Eva, she was the last person with Shane, and he's dead. And she still hasn't explained…” he trailed off, unable to say it.

 

“What happened," GloZell finished. "She just said she was in the bathroom."

 

"She was not in the _bathroom!_ ” Oli scoffed.

 

“And unless she has a problem, it doesn’t take _that long_ to use the bathroom,” Bart added.

 

GloZell's face was a stone wall of resolution. "Okay, so let's go with her.”

 

Just then, Joey’s group reentered the room and they sat back down on the couches and chairs, looking over at Arthur, who set the hat on the table and he nodded to Sierra to go first.

 

Swallowing, Sierra got up and went to the table, where she wrote a name on the paper and dropped it into the hat, returning to her seat. Each member of the group took their turns, writing down a name, and _none_ of them were really feeling safe, especially not Joey or Dawn since they were the ones to invite their friends to that infernal house in the first place.

 

Once everyone had placed a paper in the hat, Arthur picked it up, gave it a good shake to mix up the pieces of papers, and then he reached into the hat. He did mix up the papers a bit more before he removed one out of it, and he read the name on it aloud.

 

“Andrea.”

 

Several people gasped, but Andrea didn’t, although she had feared that her name would be put in.  _‘If they want me to go into this challenge, then I will.’_

 

Arthur reached into the hat a second time and selected another piece of paper, which he read aloud. “Lele.”

 

“Wait what?” Lele asked, hoping that she’d heard the butler wrong. “Me?”

 

“Oh my gosh,” Eva whispered.

 

“Wait,” Lele said again. “So that means I go down in the basement?” And when Arthur nodded, she pretended to slump dead onto Benny’s shoulder, making the group laugh, and this released some of the tension brought on by the vote.

 

Arthur looked over at Andrea. “Andrea.”

 

“Yes?” Andrea asked, sounding calm while she was freaking out on the inside.

 

“You get to pick your partner first.”

 

“And the partner solves the problem,” GloZell reminded her. "For you.”

 

Andrea nodded and looked around at the others, who were looking back at her expectantly. She knew that whoever she chose to be her partner, she would be putting her life in their hands, and so she shut her eyes for a moment to focus. “I’m going to pick…” she began, opening her eyes as she came to a decision. “Justine.”

 

“ _What?!_ ” Justine shrieked and the others were surprised by Andrea’s choice, too. “No, I'm an idiot, you don't want _me_ _!_ ” And many in the group, including Joey, agreed that she wasn’t the best choice to be a partner since none of them knew what would happen with the machine they would be facing in the basement.

 

“So Andrea picks Justine,” Arthur said calmly as the group settled down.

 

Lele knew that she had to choose a partner for the challenge, and she knew that she wasn’t going to choose Matt, who she suspected had voted for her since he’d was making it pretty clear that he didn’t like her. “Ok, I’m picking Eva.”

 

Arthur nodded. “Lele picks Eva.”

 

Taking a deep breath, Eva stood up and she collected the cog key from Tim before she, Lele, Andrea, and Justine followed Arthur out of the room through a back door that lead outside.

 

Dawn wasn’t thrilled by any of this and spoke what was on her mind. “I know that someone is suppose to die down there,” she said, “but I’m really hoping that they _all_ will come back safely.”

 

“Same here,” Joey agreed, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the first vote has been casted and partners have been chosen. So, the question is who will come back out alive? You'll just have to wait until Saturday to find out. Yeah, I just feel more into updating this story over the weekend.
> 
> Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	6. CHAPTER FIVE: FACING THE MACHINE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to the next installment of Escape the Night! So, as you will recall, Andrea and Lele were voted to go into the first Final Death Challenge and had to choose partners: Andrea chose Justine, and Lele chose Eva.
> 
> Time to see who will survive and who will die. Onward!

**CHAPTER FIVE: FACING THE MACHINE**

 

*****

 

The four girls followed Arthur outside, down a flight of stairs, walked along side the house, and then down another flight of stairs, entering the basement. They followed the butler along a hallway, and then he opened a door that lead them straight into the lab.

 

“Are you _serious?!_ ”

 

The moment that they saw the lab, all four girls were wishing they were somewhere else. The ungodly machine – which was properly named – was a giant, demonic contraption that took up half of the dimly-lit basement. There were two large glass chambers, each large enough for a person to fit inside, as well as a rusty-looking engine about the size of a small elephant. Not far from those were two control panels, each with at _least_ twenty-two wires sticking out from under them. Lightbulbs, containers, and weird tool-like things were scattered around the room, and there were enough screws, levers, and buttons to equip every mad scientist lab in the tri-state area.

 

“This is like _Saw!_ ” Lele yelped.

 

“ _Until Dawn…_ ” Eva muttered as they all hesitantly entered the room.

 

While the four girls kept their distance, Arthur went to the front of the machine, faced them, and extended his arms. “Ladies. Welcome to the ungodly machine.” And the lights came on with electricity lancing through the wiring with loud popping noises that made the girls cringe.

 

“Why do you even _have_ this down here?” Lele demanded.

 

Arthur ignored her and gestured to a small open notebook that was resting on top of one of the consoles. “Please, read the directions.”

 

The girls moved over to the console and as Lele reached for the notebook, Eva grabbed it first, and she began reading the directions for them all to hear. “‘To free the artifact from the bowels of the machine, it must be forced into malfunction. The machine is started by placing the cog key in the center console. The two guests selected by vote must be locked in separate glass chambers. Their partners will have thirty minutes to try and disrupt the machine. If either side causes a malfunction, their respective chamber will open. However, the other chamber will fill with a noxious gas, killing the guest whose partner was not quick enough. If after thirty minutes the machine has not malfunctioned, both guests will be killed by the machine and a monster will emerge’.”

 

 _‘That’s_ a lot _of pressure,’_ Andrea thought.  _‘If Eva or Justine are successful, either Lele or I will die, but if they fail after the thirty minutes are up, both Lele and I will die, and a monster will be created. This monster could end up killing Eva and Justine, and maybe even the others waiting upstairs.’_ She turned to the girls and told them her fear. “Ok, someone will die here, and if the timer runs out, we’ll _all_ die. This is a no-win scenario.”

 

Eva, who slipped the notebook into her coat, Lele, and Justine all nodded, knowing that she was right. Either way, either Lele or Andrea was going to die, or else all four of them would probably end up dead, and that would also mean that their friends would end up being dead, too.

 

Arthur gestured to Lele and Andrea, and they reluctantly followed him over to the chambers, which they entered, and he locked them inside while Eva and Justine went to their respective consoles with the first set of instructions that they needed. The butler then inserted the cog key into place, and the machine started up with a nearby timer starting, too.

 

The countdown had started.

 

“Ok,” Eva muttered and she looked over the directions, frowning in confusion since it was numbers, letters, and some kind of symbols. “This is not even in English.”

 

“It's just all these weird symbols,” said Justine and the two girls stared at each in utter confusion. _How_ were they suppose to solve _this?!_

 

Lele watched Eva and Justine as they struggled to figure out the instructions, and she was feeling freaked.  _‘I know that I haven’t been the nicest person in the world,’_ she thought as she silently began praying in a way that she hadn’t prayed in a long time.  _‘But if I_ do _get out of this alive, I will turn my life around and do better. Dios te salve, Maria, llena eres de gracia, el Senor es contigo, bendita tu eres entre todas la mujeres…’_

 

Justine examined the directions and a chart on a nearby table, and she figured it out. The blueprint was showing her different levers, which she needed to lift up and down in order to match them with the corresponding code.  _‘Ok, I_ think  _I can do this now.’_ She began matching them up and worked the levers in what she hoped was the correct way.

 

“D-13,” she muttered, lifting up the last lever and then pulled it into position. She glanced at the lights on the top of the machine, but only one was still on. “So you just have to match them up…" She frowned. "Do I gotta push harder? Is something not right?"

 

Hearing this, Andrea sighed.

 

Justine teared herself away from the levers to face the girl she was supposed to save. "Girl, I'm _trying_.”

 

Eva was also working on the levers, following the directions once she figured out the code, and when she put the final lever into place, the other lights on the top of the console lit up with a crackling noise as electricity lanced between them. “Yes!”

 

“Eva has solved the first step,” Arthur announced as Eva went to get the second set of instructions and Lele cheered from inside her chamber.

 

 _`“Oh, we're in deep crap,”`_ Andrea moaned.

 

“Ok, but…” Justine stammered and then she groaned in frustration. “Agh!”

 

 _‘Ok, I’ve managed to overload the power core,’_ Eva thought, hurrying back to the console with the next set of blueprints in hand, but she didn’t have time to celebrate since there were only fifteen minutes left on the time, and she looked down at the blueprints “‘Remove the bolt’,” she read and looked around the console, looking for the bolt she needed to remove.

 

Andrea was watching and she was certain that she would probably be the one to die at this point. _`“I'm gonna die in here,”`_ she complained.

 

“I'm doing exactly what this is telling me to do!” Justine snapped, still working the levers, trying to get it right. _‘Yeesh, solving problems on_ Fight of the Living Dead  _wasn’t as hard as this! Oh, I_ really  _hope we don’t have to go up against_ actual  _zombies!’_

 

Eva soon found the bolt, which was in a tall tube filled with water, and when she touched it, she found that it was cold.  _‘Great, I’m gonna have put my hand in ice water to unscrew and retrieve the bolt,’_ she thought, bracing herself as she rolled up the sleeve of her coat and reached into the icy cold water, gasping as she grabbed the bolt and began unscrewing it. “Oh! It’s _so_ cold!”

 

She was certain that her hand was probably already going numb and while she was tempted to give up since the bolt was being stubborn about being unscrewed, she wasn’t about to let Lele die, and so she kept going at unscrewing the bolt.  _‘If I get hypothermia, I know who I’m going to blame.’_

 

By this point, Justine _finally_ solved the levers and overloaded the power core, which lead to Andrea cheering. Pleased and relieved to having finally finish the first step. She grabbed the next set of instructions that told her that she needed to remove the bolt, found the same tube, and she reached in without moving her glove.

 

Justine tugged and twisted the bolt, but it wouldn’t come out, and she pulled her hand back out, frowning at the damage to her glove. “Girl, I can’t get the bolt,” she complained and Andrea stared at her with a shocked expression.

 

 _‘Girl, are you going to get me killed?’_ Andrea wondered since Eva was still working on getting the bolt out, and she was clearly not giving up.  _`“Justine, just get that glove off and try again,_ please _!”`_ she pleaded, rapping on the glass of the chamber.  _`“Please, don’t give up on me, girl!”`_ She was also wishing that she’d picked someone else to help in the challenge, but it was too late.

 

Eva kept unscrewing the bolt until it _finally_ came out in her hand, and she yanked it out of the icy water. “Yes!”

 

 _`“You can do it, Eva!”`_ Lele cheered while Andrea’s heart sank into her stomach.

 

“This is ridiculous!” Justine complained, yanking her glove off in frustration while glaring at the blueprints. “I'm getting really fussy! Really, really fussy!”

 

Eva ignored Justine’s complaints while she went to work on the next step, where she needed to use the bolt to open the front panel on the console. Kneeling down, she inserted the bolt, turned it, and gasped when the panel popped open, revealing six wires that were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

 

She consulted the instructions and saw that she had to rewire the machine so that each wire went in a certain jack that had a little arrow symbol above it.  _‘So, I have to do red for red and so on,’_ she thought and was briefly distracted when Justine called out to her.

 

“Girl, you wanna give me a hand?” Justine requested, still trying to get the bolt out without having to actually put her hand in the icy water again. “Did you _actually_ take this bolt out?”

 

Lele began shouting and banging her fists on the glass. _`“Don't, don't,_ don't _! Don't tell her anything!”`_

 

Eva shot Lele a look and turned her attention to the wiring. As much as she wanted to help Justine, she couldn’t, and she had do her best to overload the darn machine, even if it meant that Andrea would die, and she began working on the wiring.

 

Justine looked around and found a tool on one of the tables. She snatched it up, went back to the tube, and she inserted the tool to get at the bolt.  _‘Come on, come on, you stupid thing!’_ she thought, jabbing at the bolt until it _finally_ came out. “Oh God!” she gasped, snatching the bolt out of the icy water and held it up. “I did it!”

 

Andrea cheered, pumping her fists in the air. _`“Oh yeah!”`_

 

“Hallelujah!” Justine cheered as she grabbed the final set of instructions and went back to the front of the console to get the panel open with the bolt. “Just one to go…”

 

 _`“Come on!”`_ Andrea called out since she noted that Eva was actually struggling with one of the wires.  _`“You’re almost there!”`_

 

Using the bolt, Justine opened the panel, jumping back when it popped open, and she stared at the colorful wires. “Seriously?”

 

Eva, who’d been struggling to find the right jack for the blue wire,  _finally_ put it in the right place, and the console powered down. She’d done it! She jumped up as the chamber opened to let Lele out, and then they all watched in horror as a black cloud of gas began rising inside the chamber that Andrea was still inside.

 

Andrea banged on the glass, coughing and choking as the gas rose around her, burning her lungs, and she was in _so much_ pain that when it stopped as everything went black, it was a relief.

 

Eva, Lele, and Justine stared in horror as Andrea slumped against the glass with her eyes shut, and it was clear that she was dead as the black gas continued to swirl around her unmoving body.

 

“Eva’s done it,” Arthur said in a calm tone that had the three girls staring at him. “Justine, I'm sorry,” he continued with no change in his tone or his expression. “Andrea did not survive.” He then gestured to the machine. “You've caused the machine to malfunction,” he informed them, gesturing to the now-smoking machine, “and it will now produce-” a panel popped open at that moment, revealing the artifact, which was grey, triangle-shaped, and glowing with all sorts of weird symbols etched into its surface “-the artifact.”

 

Still wishing that Andrea didn’t have to die, Eva pulled herself together, went over to the machine, and she retrieved the artifact, along with an envelope. She then went back to Lele, who immediately hooked arms with her, and Justine, who was looking ready to cry for failing to save Andrea, and together, they followed Arthur out of the basement and back up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP Andrea. Now, I know that there are those who think Justine failed the challenge on purpose, but to be perfectly honest, with both the time limit and the stress, anyone could have screwed up like that. I know I would, even without my Autism as I can get overwhelmed by stress easily.
> 
> Anyway, I will see you all on Monday for the next update since I have work Tuesday morning at the movie theater…again. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


	7. CHAPTER SIX: THE FIRST ARTIFACT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, world and welcome back to Escape the Night.
> 
> Now, before I post the final installment of this story, I have something to say that involves an incident that occurred back on Saturday. So, I was at the mall with my client, and this guy walked up to our table, asking if he could have a sip of my drink. I told him 'no, thank you' while shielding my drink with my hand, and he walked away. That left me weird out, uncomfortable, and scared to the point that I didn't dare leave my drink unattended.  
> My client does have a mild form of Autism and she gave me more supportive hugs that day then at any other point during the four years that I have been her caregiver. The guy did come back with his friend when he realized just how freaked out he'd left me, and I learned that they were doing a social experiment involving breaking social norms.  
> They both apologized, and I did feel a bit better, but that fact that this happen at all is just really annoying, and the parents of my client were livid when they heard about it from their daughter. My family wasn't happy with what happen either when I texted them about it.  
> Please, before you do that kind of experiment to record and upload on YouTube, please first consider how it'll affect your target if you do it without their consent.  
> Ok, rant mode off, just had to get that off my chest. Anyway, time to see how everyone will react when Eva, Lele, and Justine come back with the artifact. Onward!

**CHAPTER SIX: THE FIRST ARTIFACT**

 

*****

 

In the living room, the group was waiting to see who was going to be coming back alive with the artifact, and GloZell was hoping that Lele would come back alive, and that wasn’t something that Matt wanted to happen since he’d voted for Lele.

 

 _‘If Lele comes back alive, she’ll know that_ I  _voted for her,’_ he thought uneasily.  _‘And then she’ll come after me, especially since I’ve been_ so  _vocal about her needing to go into the challenge in the first place.’_

 

Dawn, who was still sitting next to Joey, was the first to hear something faint that was slowly growing louder. “Joey, I think I hear footsteps.”

 

Joey knew that Dawn had sensitive hearing, so if she was hearing something, then it had to be true, and soon enough, he could hear the footsteps, too. He straightened in his seat. “They’re coming.”

 

Arthur was the first to enter the room, his face was unreadable, and Justine entered next with such a dejected expression that it was clear about who was dead, and it was more clear when Lele and Eva entered together, carrying the artifact.

 

“I survived!” Lele announced with a giggle and a wink. “I know you're all happy about it.”

 

“I knew it!” GloZell declared, slamming her cane into the floor while Matt was hiding his disappointment. “I knew it! I knew it!”

 

Tim, however, was devastated since that mean that Andrea wasn’t coming back. “Andrea’s _dead_?” he asked.

 

Justine, who’d sat down on the couch across from him, swallowed and nodded. “I seriously tried,” she told them. “Like, I honestly did everything. I think I was sabotaged.”

 

“What did you have to do?” Sierra asked.

 

Eva pulled out the notebook and showed it to them. “We had to overload the ungodly machine.”

 

Dawn stood and took the notebook from her, reading the contents. “‘To free the artifact from the bowels of the machine, it must be forced into malfunction’,” she read. “‘The machine is started by placing the cog key in the center console. The two guests selected by vote must be locked in separate glass chambers. Their partners will have thirty minutes to try and disrupt the machine. If either side causes a malfunction, their respective chamber will open. However, the other chamber will fill with a noxious gas, killing the guest whose partner was not quick enough. If after thirty minutes the machine has not malfunctioned, both guests will be killed by the machine and a monster will emerge’.”

 

“What does that mean?” Oli asked.

 

“If I’m reading this right,” Dawn explained, her forehead furrowed. “Eva and Justine only had thirty minutes to make the machine overload, and if they had failed to do it in the time limit, then both Lele and Andrea would’ve died, and some kind of monster would’ve been created. Man, talk about stress.”

 

Tim jumped up and grabbed the notebook, throwing it to the floor. “Yeah right!” he snapped, glaring at the blonde. “She _wanted_ Andrea dead! She _killed_ her!”

 

“No I didn’t!” Justine protested, jumping to her feet. “We had to solve this stupid puzzles and while Eva was able to solve them real quick, I was having a _hard time!_ ”

 

“Liar!” Tim shouted.

 

“ _Enough!_ ” Dawn shrieked, making them all jump, and both Tim and Justine backed away, and she glared at the group. “Enough with the accusing! This is _exactly_ what the demon or whatever it is _wants_. It wants us going after each other instead of focusing on getting the artifacts, sealing away the evil, and getting out of here. Think about it, _please_.”

 

Joey stood up and went to the brunette, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You’re right, Dawn,” he agreed, keeping his voice even. “Arguing with each other isn’t going to help anyone, and I know none of us want anyone else to die, but it’ll keep happening until we can get the artifacts.”

 

Although Tim still wanted to go after Justine for killing Andrea, he knew that both Joey and Dawn, who could get scary when she was angry, were right.  _‘But I’ll still make Justine pay, I will.’_

 

Eva held up the artifact she’d been holding. “We got an artifact,” she announced and the group took turns holding it, GloZell remarking on how heavy it was. “One out of the four.”

 

Lele took the artifact, carried it over to the mantle above the fireplace, and set it there. “Only three more artifacts to find,” she remarked, turning to the group, and they knew that meant that three other people were going to have to die in order to get them.

 

Oli noticed something was sticking out of the bottom of the mantle on the side. It was small, white, and barely noticeable, but he figured that it had to be a clue or something for the finding of the next artifact. He went to the mantle, getting the attention of the group, and he pulled the paper from its hiding place while Benny and Bart both asked what he was doing.

 

He turned to the group, unfolding the paper, and he began reading. “‘You've been warned. One among you is in league with the evil of the house’.”

 

“Someone's working with the evil?” Matt asked, looking around at the group, who were looking equally confused of how one of them could be working with the evil in the house, the evil that had killed Shane, and had forced three of their numbers to kill Andrea mere minutes ago.

 

“Guys, who is it?" Sierra whimpered, prompting Benny to put a protective arm around her shoulders.

 

"It's not me," Lele declared, "because I almost died!"

 

"It's  _your_ house!" GloZell snarled, pointing at Joey and Dawn, who glared at her in return.

 

Tim adjusted his coat. "So," he said bluntly, glaring at Justine, "who's the rat?”

 

Was someone in their group really an ally of the evil that was possessing the house? If so, who? And would that person allow them to leave before sunrise?

 

To be continued…

 

*****

 

_I have so many, so many regrets._

_So many lies, so many broken ties._

_I wish for my old life._

_Wish I could fix my strike._

_Cause no one truly escapes the night._

_Oh, won't you help me escape the night._

_Oh baby help me escape the night._

_Escape the night._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone is an ally of the evil? That's not good, and Dawn's right about them blaming and accusing each other constantly, it does more harm then good. Anyway, I will see you all on Thursday with the start of the next story, and I hope that the announcement for Season 4 will be soon, too. Bye for now! R&R everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that's a creepy monster and I hope our favorite YouTubers won't encounter it. I will see you all again tomorrow. Bye for now! R&R everyone!


End file.
